With a running mate's petition campaign on the rocks and his own fundraising effort falling tens of thousands of dollars short, Danbury Mayor Mark Boughton decided it was time to become a team player.

So, with no promises --or offers -- of a job should convention-endorsed Republican Tom Foley win the August primary and then defeat Gov. Dannel P. Malloy in a rematch of their 2010 gubernatorial election, Boughton returns full-time to leading his city of 83,000.

It leaves the potentially divisive primary a two-candidate match between Foley and Senate Minority Leader John McKinney, of Fairfield.

"Mark is a good Republican and a strong supporter of the party and I'm sure he did what he felt was best under the circumstances he found himself," said Jerry Labriola, chairman of the Republican State Central Committee. While Labriola remains neutral during the primary process, he accompanied Foley in a visit this week to the state AFL-CIO political convention, which endorsed Malloy.

Boughton said Thursday he never even consulted Foley before pulling the plug on his candidacy Wednesday, when it became clear that veteran Shelton Mayor Mark Lauretti would fail to reach the nearly 8,200 signatures needed to morph his failed gubernatorial bid into a lieutenant governor partnership.

The final petition figures should be announced Friday by Secretary of the State Denise Merrill.

"I like and admire John McKinney and if he's the nominee, I'll work hard for him," Boughton said. "Sixty to 65 percent of the people at the convention favored Tom Foley and that was my thinking. I'll do whatever I can to get our team elected."

Boughton, 50, a former high school teacher and former member of the state House of Representatives who was first elected mayor in 2001, said in a phone interview he's fully focusing on his municipal duties and doubts he would play a role in a Foley administration.

"You never say never, but it is not anticipated," Boughton said. "There's no better job than being mayor of a city."

"I don't think it's that surprising," Swan said. "It is very difficult to see a scenario where Foley does not walk away with the Republican nomination. He'd have to really stumble at this point in time. And if he wins in November there are a lot of positions that if he wanted something, they could find him a job."

McKinney has been a focus of resentment from conservative gun owners for his support of the state's 2013 firearms reforms after the Sandy Hook Elementary School shootings.

"I just have a feeling that this will send a signal to John McKinney that the party is starting to rally around a nominee," Rose said. "His campaign is starting to look more like an outlier or a marginal candidacy."

McKinney this week predicted that he, like Foley, will qualify for the state's public-financing program and is pushing for as many public events with Foley as possible. Rose warns of its potential for fracturing the GOP in Connecticut.

"The primary is, right now, in the view of so many Republicans, detrimental in their attempt to win back the governorship," Rose said. "It's a good thing for some parties, but not when a party only has a 20-percent base as it is and has a somewhat contentious primary at a time when they need all their energy and resources."

"Boughton didn't have a whole lot of juice going into this primary, so I think his departure is negligible," McLean said. "It makes it slightly harder for Foley because the alternative has been narrowed down if someone didn't like Foley."

Boughton's plans include new housing on Danbury's Main Street, and his duties as incoming first vice president of the Connecticut Conference of Municipalities.

"I've got enough to do here that will keep us humming along for years," he said. "If the only thing I do is be the longest-lasting mayor of Danbury, that's fine. Everyone, including my wife, knows I'm a workaholic."